Piers Me Off! (with pic)

Piering occurred today.  Nice to see the progress but was given almost no notice to go and verify the depths.  Watched for a while when a 3 m pier was dropped and started to think the worst regarding a variation - there was only an allowance for 50 lineal metres in the contract and I find out today there are 55 piers.  Once we assessed all of the depths it came out as 89 m, 39 m over the allowance x $80/m = $3,120 unbudgeted.  I am a bit 'piers'ed off! I reckon Fowler Homes could have predicted this.  I had a look at my Wisdom Tender and they had given a fixed price!  A definite trap for first time Builders.  If you have a site affected by fill, consider the potential for piering variations.

The concrete pump arrived before I left so the piers should be filled today.  Formwork, plumbing, reo and then lay slab - could all happen this week weather permitting and Fowler being on their game.  Here's hoping.

Piers drilled, setting up for filling

The Plans (Pics)

We chose Fowler Homes' Monaco 28 design because we wanted a small footprint home to maximise the yard space for our little ones yet still get 4 bed, 2 garage, Alfresco, Cinema, Study, open plan kitchen, dining, family...  It is less than 16 m long, most are 19-20 m, and about 11.3 m wide.
This design is almost exactly the same as Wisdom Homes' Aspiration (and is from the same Architect).
I have included snap shots of some of the more exciting elements from the Plans.

Ground Floor Plan

1st Floor Plan

Front Façade Elevation

Compared to the original design we have:

• Had to put a split because of the sloping site.  This was big dollars, mainly because the ceiling height had to be increased to 3450 mm in the front of the house.  Should make for a grand entry!
• Converted the ground floor linen cupboard into a pantry (no pantry in original design)
• Flipped the Home Cinema and the Study - no charge
• Made the Ensuite Shower full length with two shower heads - this cost a bit too
• Moved the Bed 3 and 4 windows to suit the view - minor fee
• Added two piers and parapet over in front of the Home Cinema to jazz up the basic façade - this cost a fair bit
• Made the Meals Room wall a recycled brick feature wall - this cost a bit

Negotiations

We sent off emails to both Builders telling them that they were really expensive and listed the features that the other Builder was beating them with.  I also expressed some concern with Fowler Homes about their attention to detail after the tender fiasco.

Fowler Homes assured me the error was a one-off (a few pages got lost in the fax machine) and threw in for free a few of the things that Wisdom had in their upgrade package.

Wisdom Homes refused to negotiate.  When I told them that we were going to walk they rang the wife and asked for a copy of Fowler Homes' tender so that they could be sure it was a fair comparison.  They said that they would match Fowler's tender and take $1,000 off.  She told them that we wanted their best offer, not just $1,000 better, and that we would not give it to them because then we were giving up our competitive position.  They then rang me to see if I'd break but I held firm.

In the meantime we went back to Fowler Homes and told them that Wisdom Homes had given us more and dropped their price.  Fowler gave us a few more things which gave them a couple of grand price benefit and some nicer features.

Our No 2 Tip to date - there is room to negotiate (with some!)

Wisdom Homes had presented very professionally and we felt confident that they would do a good job.  Their unwillingness to negotiate lost them our business.  I get the feeling that they are doing a lot of work already and didn't need to chase our work and blow their margin.

On the other hand, Fowler Homes presented less professionally and we knew we would need to ride them but we were going to get more for our dollar and for this we were prepared to do some hard yards.

Fowler Homes it is...

The Fowler Tender

Starting the Fowler Homes process was far more laid back - our requests were recorded on a scrap of paper... We had to put the heat on to get their Tender within the 3 weeks promised.  It was presented in one of the display home sales offices, open to other customers and disruptions.  We turn to the first page to see that the split was wrong (tall at back, short at front, despite a block sloping to the front).  Then we find that 80% of the inclusions that we had asked for had not been priced. Very disappointing and frustrating.  The Sales Rep was apologetic and promised to get it corrected quickly.  This was a Saturday, we got the update on the Monday.  Almost exactly the same as Wisdom Homes ! The Rep also let on that there was room to move.  Despite their error, Fowler Homes were in the game.

The Wisdom Tender

Wisdom Homes spent forever handwriting all of the details to include in the tender, very meticulous. They completed their tender within the promised 3 weeks and presented it at their head office at Narellan.  It was very professional and well explained.  It was close to the original indicative quote.  Wisdom Homes' rep recorded any variations that we were interested in exploring and talked us out of a few things that were obviously going to be unrealistic.  We explained that we were getting other tenders and asked if there was any room for negotiation.  We were politely told 'no' and I have to say we were skeptical.  They then came back with a revised tender via email within a few days.  At this point we thought it likely that we would be going with Wisdom Homes.

How it all started (with Pic)

After battling with an older home for a few years we wondered whether we could afford to build.  We were always wary of the base price vs actual price unknown and assumed it would be out of reach.  We took the plunge and got an indicative quote from Wisdom Homes ($0) using the contour plan of a block of land in an area that we liked.  Here is a dodgy panorama from the block.  We liked the elevated location and the green views.  Also the area was nicely established and family oriented.

Panorama from our block

Even though it was a bit slopey we were surprised to find that it probably was within our reach and we felt that Wisdom Homes had been thorough and honest so we put our home on the market.

Lucky for us our home sold on the first day, $50 above the list price! The wife had really played the Agents against each other to get a low commission too so we were off to a great start.

We signed on with Wisdom Homes for a tender ($700) as we liked that their homes had good open plan access onto Alfresco areas and were small enough to leave us some yard space.  We were keen to tender with Eden Brae but all of their designs had way too big a footprint.  We got indicative costs from Clarendon Homes who were cost competitive but their designs weren't quite right and their tender was pricey ($1,000).  Finally we found Fowler Homes who use the same architect as Wisdom and chose to tender on a house that was almost exactly the same - hopefully a good 'apples for apples' comparison.

Our Number 1 Tip to date - get at least 2 tenders as the Builders will realise that they have to give you competitive pricing.  We had a friend who was quoted $40k in site costs.  When he walked they knocked $15k off without blinking an eye but he ended up buying something established he was so turned off.